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This is my Head of School blog. I use it to reflect on my own learning, my wonderings about education, and questions about how to shape our school, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill. I also use it to share with the community things I experience at school. It affords me another way to be present with our ever-growing community of learners.

Easter Chapel

On Maundy Thursday morning, Trinity celebrates its Easter Chapel, before we dismiss for the long Easter weekend. Several good traditions have taken root over the years, including the second graders' processional with palm branches and the singing of "All Glory Laud and Honor," the K and First graders reciting John 3:16, and the Upper Schoolers helping our youngest children "flower" the cross. At the end of the chapel, seniors lead the young students out in a recessional back to their classes, carrying the flowered cross.

These are good traditions, and they've taken some time to settle in. Traditions are hard to come by, good ones that is. We've tried our share of traditions that haven't stuck. You know a good one when you see it. My philosophy of tradition is analogous to my theology of canon: Just as the church didn't invent the canon but discovered or recognized those books which bore the mark of authenticity, so we discover traditions that are right for us at Trinity School. Good traditions may be the creative brainchild of a particular person or group, but they so transcend that group and so fit the institution that their authorship is soon obscured by the fact that they belong to the entire school. I think I remember who first proposed the flowering of the cross, but it doesn't really matter now who that was. What matters most is that we have begun to grow up generations of students who will remember this as a significant marker in their own Easter celebration. And a fitting marker too, the turning of the ugly cross into the beautiful cross.

I also love the chance Easter gives me to proclaim the Good News to the entire Trinity Community. You'll see Cameron the third grader dropping an egg in one of the pictures here. We talked about the bad news that all the world is falling, like the egg, like Humpty Dumpty; that all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty back together again; that death and dissolution were the way of the world. (Credit due: C.S. Lewis' Miracles) Cameron and later Becca Joy dropped eggs on our fine gym floor, to make the point very visible to us all. I asked for volunteers to put the eggs back together, and though I had a few fool-hardy hands up, we all knew it was an impossible feat.

Except that on Easter morning God put the egg back together. Jesus' resurrection was the undoing of death and dissolution, the working backwards of what had worked only one direction before. And with his resurrection, so also the promise of ours, and of the redemption of all God's creation. The second law of thermodynamics is not the final word on nature, not if the resurrection is true. All in Christ will be redeemed, and with us all creation. This is our great hope.

And this hope propels us to serve others. Here's a quick video clip of some of our students making Easter baskets to share with families who need them.

Comments

Thanks for writing about this. I was out of town on a business trip and had to miss the Easter Chapel. This is an important chapel for the Trinity community and the traditions that have been established over the years are helpful reminders of who we are and point us to the the importance of Christ in our lives. Thanks as well for posting the short video of the third graders putting together Easter baskets for the DRM. It was a delight to see Owen in the background doing his part.